neapolitan porter float

Hi, friends! Babyface had a rockin’ idea for a dessert drink a few weeks ago and asked if I’d share it with you guys whenever he made it. I told him I’d even do him one even better—he could write his own post about it! So here’s Babyface to tell you guys all about his stroke of boozy genius (it was seriously yummy, kids). Feel free to heckle him about his need to gratuitously stick the letter u into a lot of words. It’s a Canadian thing. Take it away fantastic husband of mine…

I don’t normally find myself coming up with great ideas to put out into the blogging world. It’s just not something that my brain tends to focus on. To be quite honest, I’m not sure what I’m thinking about most of the time, but something is definitely going on up there, because I wake up with these wretched headaches and the events from the previous day are a complete blur and… wait.

That’s not from thinking at all!

Quick, word game: what liquid substance rhymes with cheer and invokes said emotion when you drink it?

What is on the menu is the thought that I managed to wrangle the other day. It came to me like a flash of lightning, as it were. Neapolitan beer floats. Chocolate ice cream. Vanilla Porter. Strawberry Whipped Cream.

Boom, goes the dynamite.

It was a recipe so unbelievably brilliant that I had to build a bridge that took it from an idea to a reality. I’m sure there are others out there like it, but since I’m awesome, mine automatically = the best.

Let me just say this first: this recipe is in no way, shape or form low-calorie. You could make substitutions here and there and make it a little lighter, but the idea with this one was to make something as delicious as I possibly could.

So, green means go!

A few years ago, the beautiful and I were browsing the selection of beer in the “beer cave” at our local liquor store and being that she is a designer and I am a photographer, we were, of course, choosing beer based solely on how pretty it looked. The brewery that we chose on that fateful day was Breckinridge Brewery, based out of Breckinridge, Colorado, and gee whiz am I glad we judged that book by its cover. Ever since then we’ve loved every beer of theirs that we’ve tasted. So much so that we checked with the state to see if we could legally adopt it as our child. They said no and so we settled for a trip to Denver to visit one of their pubs, instead.

As much as we love every one of their beers, there’s the one Breckinridge brew that stands atop the podium as champion; our favourite child, if you will. Every single one we drink just gets better and better because it’s rich and creamy and dark and it’s like beer and dessert and more beer all together in a pretty little package. A pretty little package called the Breckingridge Vanilla Porter.

If you are a beer drinker and you’ve never had one of these, do yourself a favour and go out and find one. The six-pack that I picked up for this recipe was actually in our local Kroger, so in the past few years, the availability has definitely widened and hopefully those of you interested in this recipe can find it!

If you’re not a beer drinker, I have a feeling that you’d still really dig this recipe, because while the porter is the most important ingredient (in my opinion, anyways) the chocolate ice cream and the strawberry whipped cream aren’t very far behind, and are probably the two things that just made your mouth start to water.

Well, first of all, control yourself before you ruin your keyboard, and second of all, begin to realize that you’re going to make a ridiculously delicious float.

The most time-consuming part of this recipe is the whipped cream because you’re going to make it from scratch. The rest of it is akin to making your regular ol’, run of the mill float.

Neapolitan Porter Float

by Craig Johnston

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: None

Makes: 2 floats

Ingredients

1 cup frozen strawberries

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup water

1 cup heavy whipping cream

3 tablespoons powdered sugar

Half bottle Breckenridge Vanilla Porter (or other dark beer)

Two scoops chocolate ice cream

Instructions

In a medium saucepan over medium-low heat, bring berries, sugar and water to boil and continue to stir until berries break down and thicken into syrup. Remove from heat and push through a fine strainer into a bowl. Stick syrup in freezer to cool down.

Meanwhile, pour whipping cream into the bowl of a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, add powdered sugar and mix on low until just blended.

Turn mixer on high and add cooled syrup (save a little to drizzle on top at the end). Make sure to scrape the sides so all of the syrup is invited to the whipped cream party, and do so until light and fluffy, as whipped cream should be.

Pop the cap off of the vanilla porter and slowly submerge the chocolate ice cream in it until it’s about half an inch from the rim of the glass.

Scoop whipped cream on top of current float ingredients.

Drizzle with remaining syrup. Find a straw, plunge it in the float and be happy.

There should be enough whipped cream and another half bottle of beer to make two of these to share with someone special. In the event that person happens to be you, just find a bigger glass and go to town!

Right after you indulge in this amazing boozy treat, take some of that cheer of yours and use it to get in the Sweat for the Cure Raffle. Today is the LAST DAY to buy tickets. We’re still about $245 behind what my sister needs to be able to walk with us. I would love nothing more than for us to hit that mark today. This is me, on my knees, begging. PLEEEEEASSEEE. Go join in the fun!

I LOVE Breckenridge Brewery!! My husband and I go to Breck every summer (and got engaged during a bike ride from Vail Pass to Breck a few years ago, even- and celebrated with dinner at Breck Brewery :)) The Vanilla Porter just might be my favorite beer of theirs, but it’s hard to say. I really, really love them all. The oatmeal stout is pretty fantastic too. I get the sampler each time I go there, and try to pick a fave… and can’t make up my mind. This beer float sounds awesome (and looks pretty incredible).

I’ve tried making beer floats before, but I think it’s a brilliant idea to use the chocolate ice cream, which now I need to try, since I’m sure it brings more rich sweetness to the float. Vanilla ice cream never really works: / Mocha ice cream might be good since it’ll blend well with the coffee flavors of the porter.

YAY for extra u’s in the words! I’m not sure if I’ll be able to find THIS vanilla porter up here in Canada but this definitely looks like a float worth trying … I’ll have to see what I can do. I may have to drink a lot of beers before I find the perfect one, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

Have you ever been to Creation Cafe up in Indy? That’s where I had my first ever beer float: Blue Moon and orange sorbet…yum! Craig’s recipe looks great and I love me some vanilla porter, so I’ll definitely have to give it a try soon!

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Hello, Friends!

I'm Cassie. I’m a girl living the dream on a small hobby farm in Southern Indiana. Follow along as a I cook healthy food, play in the garden, wrangle chickens, and enjoy the (not always) simple country life.

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